Team-BHPians and their Pets

This is a discussion on Team-BHPians and their Pets within Shifting gears, part of the Around the Corner category; Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom
But that is the way it is with cats. they decide where to live!
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My daughter has been adopted by two cats that teach any dog that visits or stays at their home, how to behave with them. But I could never keep a cat as a pet; I find it hard to keep a pet an animal that behaves as if I am the pet.

And as to interacting with children, apart from teaching them to be gentle and responsible to the needs of their pets, I have an untested theory that it also allows for better building of immunity to allergies etc in the kids. The dogs to have to be kept reasonably clean of course, but even so the child's immune system has learn to cope with more things than if the dogs were not there.

In general, how we treat animals in India is a scandal that is a marker of how uncivilised we really are as a society.

Anyone wanting to keep a pet dog is best served by Indian breeds that are as good as any if kept at home, and better than most by being hardened to be able to flourish in our climate.

True that.
Also - due to the nature of their breeding, purebreds are often not able to live on their own in the streets and die a painful death.
I find that with little maintenance, the INDog lives longer and are much more resilient than purebreds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

but I fear that this means that we now have two cats. No: we did not want. But that is the way it is with cats. they decide where to live!

yup - the great great grandmother of the current generation of cats in our house simply walked in one day with two kittens and decided that she and her generations to come would live in this house from now onwards!

A final set of Honey, ending with a recent formal portrait I took of her when she turned 3 years. In the early days, she was a true "hound from hell" as seen in her bounding along photo, with sharp milk teeth that hurt when she nipped before learning to moderate her bite in play. The first three months were physically exhausting, but worth the rewards that continue to flow.

But I doubt we will keep dogs once these two move on to their happy hunting grounds. We won't have the energy left that is needed to cope with a growing up pup.

And one portrait of the cat in my daughter's home, who will literally slap my dogs, if they don't behave properly with her. Ellie, another adopted animal found of all the places, in Goa.

A couple of years ago, we came across an unwanted guinea pig. We kept it for day, but the dogs went crazy and it would have been too much of a chore to keep the thing alive; too easy to have an accident, so we gave it away, with some reluctance.

For what is not much different from a mouse, a lot more appealing. Subliminal racism?

To get an idea of its size in the absence of scale: the thing could sit inside my shirt pocket.

I have 2 vets. One costs roughly the same as yours - but he when gives an injection to my kitten, it's really painful for the kitten - my kitten jumps in the air. So I avoid him as far as possible. The other one costs almost double of this but her injections don't pain the kitten at all - he just gives a tiny squeak - so I visit her most of the time. Last weekend, my kitten had fever & I had to take him to her twice. First visit - temperature check & injection - Rs. 300. Second visit - injection + one oral tablet - Rs. 400.

This is what I come home to every single day. I have had him for a little less than 5 years now and he has been waiting for me like this, every single time I step out of the house. And for all these years, his excitement on seeing me come home has never faded! He always loses his mind the moment I come home!

And as the set below will show, there isn't a better pet than a good dog for a child to grow up with; from someone to watch over the crib in the early days, to a partner in crime while growing up.

Wonderful, evocative photographs - and a perfect route down nostalgia lane! Sawyer, your name goes up in my private hall of fame.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sawyer

While we have had dogs in the home for a long time, Amber and Honey are the first breed dogs; both adopted as puppies because they were the unwanted females in the litter. Amber came home in 2009, while Honey dropped by in 2014.

Both get along very well together as golden retrievers usually do, and are very good with kids.

The last picture is Honey when she came home, and how she is today, a lady in her prime. Lady most of the time, that is, puppy games are not completely out of her blood yet!

Absolutely! - a perfect lady most of the time, but without those puppy games the picture wouldn't be as perfect, would it!
Our Daisy (she's here too somewhere), after her first litter - in fact the morning after a late night delivery - did something which still keeps my wife & me in splits! She peeped out of the confinement room - where only the two of us had been allowed in so far - quickly went to her squeaky toy (a rubber mallard duck) lying on the floor, picked it up and dashed back to her litter!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sawyer

Thank you!

And here is another that is an example of the scandal that is the entire dog breeding racket in the country, supported by educated people that should know better.
People buy exotic pups from unscrupulous breeders, and when they can't cope with responsibility of keeping a pet, abandon them on the roads by simply driving to the outskirts of the city and leaving them there and driving back home. Even putting the animal down would be kinder, but these people don't have the courage to do that. In the picture is one such that my daughter adopted recently, a boxer bitch of uncertain age not exceeding 12 months, now called Yuki. She was found abandoned on the roads, wandering around with a prolapsed vagina.
In general, how we treat animals in India is a scandal that is a marker of how uncivilised we really are as a society.
Anyone wanting to keep a pet dog is best served by Indian breeds that are as good as any if kept at home, and better than most by being hardened to be able to flourish in our climate.

Well said indeed! In fact this practice is not confined to our country alone nor is it a recent phenomena! As James Herriot mentions in one of his books (I forget which) he came across a patient, a Jack Russell terrier rescued by a local Yorkshire farmer who saw the dog being thrown out of a passing car and the car speeding away! This was in pre-war England - the fabled land of fabled dog lovers.
Also as you mention, dog "breeders" in our country should be avoided with a barge pole! Though there are efforts being made to organise the whole business (a registered list approved by the major kennels, to start with) but it still has a long way to go.

I have had him for a little less than 5 years now and he has been waiting for me like this, every single time I step out of the house. And for all these years, his excitement on seeing me come home has never faded! He always loses his mind the moment I come home!

Yes; all part of the loving you unconditionally. And who says that dogs don't smile?
I read a book which claimed that dogs are one step away from attaining Nirvana in the reincarnation game. No idea about that, but I am sure a lot of good Karma accrues to those that take care of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shashanka

Wonderful, evocative photographs - and a perfect route down nostalgia lane! Sawyer, your name goes up in my private hall of fame.

She peeped out of the confinement room - where only the two of us had been allowed in so far - quickly went to her squeaky toy (a rubber mallard duck) lying on the floor, picked it up and dashed back to her litter!

Though there are efforts being made to organise the whole business (a registered list approved by the major kennels, to start with) but it still has a long way to go.

With dogs and children, half the challenge in taking a good picture, of having a good subject to photograph, is easily addressed.

The rubber duck incident is very hilarious and very believable at the same time.

IMO, organising the business in a country like India will only open more ways for the unscrupulous to make merry at the expense of canine lives and welfare, by making dupes of unsuspecting owners of both kinds - the ones that will fulfil their commitment to the dog over the entire life of the animal, and the ones that will run away from it at the first instance that it becomes inconvenient.

And in a place like India, it will leave the problem of stray dogs running around unchecked, completely untouched, so it is far better to make pets of these. The root cause of that is of course something else - all the rubbish that litters the streets of "Clean India" that allows the dogs, that are scavengers - an environment in which to survive and even prosper on our streets. Address that, and the dogs will disappear over time because they will then come down to manageable numbers that can be handled via sterilisation and release along with adoption so over a generation or two, they disappear. But like everything else, all that gets done by our leaders is futile symptom management in fits and starts. Even someone as smart as Kiran Bedi, in a place as small as Pondicherry where doing this is very feasible, isn't able to see her way to this solution.

I read a book which claimed that dogs are one step away from attaining Nirvana in the reincarnation game. No idea about that, but I am sure a lot of good Karma accrues to those that take care of them.

“In Mongolia, when a dog dies, he is buried high in the hills so people cannot walk on his grave. The dog's master whispers into the dog's ear his wishes that the dog will return as a man in his next life. Then his tail is cut off and put beneath his head, and a piece of meat or fat is placed in his mouth to sustain his soul on its journey; before he is reincarnated, the dog's soul is freed to travel the land, to run across the high desert plains for as long as it would like.

I learned that from a program on the National Geographic channel, so I believe it is true. Not all dogs return as men, they say; only those who are ready.

I am ready.”

- The Art of Racing in the Rain, Garth Stein, P98

I read this book back in 2011 or 2012, and would rate it as one of the must reads.

Yes, I have read that book and thought it better than Marley and Me. There are also a few management books that espouse the canine way of thinking!

But even after all these years, nothing I have found has bettered the Herriott books.

Dean Koontz is a horror/suspense story writer of the Stephen King popularised genre, but there is one book whose name that I cannot recall that is a tribute to his dog - non fiction obviously - that is also very good. He has also written a novel about a genetically engineered dog, that is not bad.

This is what I come home to every single day. I have had him for a little less than 5 years now and he has been waiting for me like this, every single time I step out of the house. And for all these years, his excitement on seeing me come home has never faded! He always loses his mind the moment I come home!

That says it all! As another dog-lover and friend (Digitalnirvana) on this forum said sometime back "....to you a dog is but a part of your world, but to the dog you are their whole world....". Our resident pair reacts the same way - even if I've been away for just an an hour or so & returned from the market!

Is it safe to feed Parle G or any such "glucose" biscuits to stray dog of approx 10 years old? I'm asking from digestion point of view. There is one quite old dog near our apartment and I want to feed him on daily/regular basis. I've already started feeding him normal glucose biscuits but don't know if that harms him especially due to his old age. I don't mind feeding him pedigree or any other ready made food.
Any suggestions please? Honestly it's not feasible to cook and feed regularly so pass on suggestions accordingly.

Is it safe to feed Parle G or any such "glucose" biscuits to stray dog of approx 10 years old? I'm asking from digestion point of view. There is one quite old dog near our apartment and I want to feed him on daily/regular basis. I've already started feeding him normal glucose biscuits but don't know if that harms him especially due to his old age. I don't mind feeding him pedigree or any other ready made food.
Any suggestions please? Honestly it's not feasible to cook and feed regularly so pass on suggestions accordingly.

Thanks,
Pradip.

I hope this answers your question, but strays eat so much crap anyway that I honestly feel that their metabolism adjusts to whatever you give them. I know of strays in the neighborhood that live almost entirely on trash and glucose biscuits.